cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Hardware to play GTA IV on PC

Anonymous
Not applicable

Hardware to play GTA IV on PC

Hi,
My son was trying to play GTA IV on his PC today but the graphics were stalling and it wasn't doing to good, the PC is quite old TBH. So he's thinking of upgrading but would need :
Motherboard + CPU, Video Card and Memory (and maybe a new PSU)
For those that know about these things what would you recommend up to a max of 550 all in?
8 REPLIES 8
myredhotcar
Grafter
Posts: 457
Registered: ‎06-11-2013

Re: Hardware to play GTA IV on PC

This motherboard bundle although personally I would contact Overclockers and pay extra to have the RAM swapped for Corsair or Kingston. According to their website you can buy the Kingston equivalent (but with tighter timings) for an extra £6, which is a no-brainer. This is a pretty decent GPU for the money.
With regard to PSU I would suggest using something like this tool to calculate power draw. If you need one my favoured PSU brands are Seasonic and Antec (who use a lot of rebranded Seasonic parts). Many other manufacturers can be unpredictable in that they release some good products and some bad. As with RAM I personally don't skimp with PSUs.
This machine is overkill if your son only wants to play old games such as GTA IV but he will at least be able to run current and newer games (GTA V is out for PC next year) albeit possibly at slightly lower settings.
Bear in mind that if the existing PC is running OEM Windows (as opposed to retail) it will likely complain when you switch components, although I have got away with this in the past when using the same vendors for upgrades (eg Asus motherboard upgraded to a newer Asus board). You may be able to phone up and get it reactivated but technically you will have broken the OEM agreement as I understand it and you may have to factor in a copy of Windows. The parts I have listed come to around £360 with upgraded RAM and without PSU (up to £50 if you go for Seasonic or Antec). Even with a new copy of Windows you are only looking at around £480. It is worth noting that if you stretch to £550 the additional £70 would get an even better GPU.
The parts listed are not the cheapest available but are of quality. You could go down the AMD route and save money or get more cores for your money but when it comes to gaming raw clockspeed is often more important than core count although this will hopefully change.
twocvbloke
Seasoned Hero
Posts: 6,399
Thanks: 1,782
Fixes: 3
Registered: ‎06-11-2014

Re: Hardware to play GTA IV on PC

Forget upgrading anything, GTA IV was so badly coded for the PC when porting from Console to Computer that even modern top-notch hardware can't run it properly, my gaming PC far exceeds it's requirements, but it still lags, stutters and occasionally freezes, and it's only GTA IV (and the two sub-episodes) that behaves like that... Undecided
I just hope GTA 5 is better-made when it finally is released on a proper platform in January... Roll_eyes
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Hardware to play GTA IV on PC

Thank you both for taking the time to reply, I'd kind of given up on getting a reply and I had arranged for someone to come in and clear out the tumble weed that had gathered in here.
I looked at the links provided and they look like OK bits of kit. However while I was waiting on a reply I looked at my son's PC and the game's requirements and I have to agree with twocvbloke, the PC he has should by all account work, but as I've witnessed it doesn't; it plays exactly as twocvbloke says it does. So I think I know what I'm going to suggest to my son, and it won't involve any spending of money, at least not now.
Thanks again.
Mathias
Grafter
Posts: 242
Registered: ‎21-08-2008

Re: Hardware to play GTA IV on PC

Based on twocvbloke's answer you may just want to look for the most recent patch of the game rather than buying components to help fix the issue (if it can be fixed).
twocvbloke
Seasoned Hero
Posts: 6,399
Thanks: 1,782
Fixes: 3
Registered: ‎06-11-2014

Re: Hardware to play GTA IV on PC

Mine's as up to date as it's going to get (Bought via Steam so I get regular game updates, and considering GTA5 has replaced it, GTA4 is pretty much not supported by R* now, especially as it's 6.5 years old) and still suffers, so, GTA4 is pretty much what it is, if you want a smooth and enjoyable game, you have to get the console version of it... Undecided
myredhotcar
Grafter
Posts: 457
Registered: ‎06-11-2013

Re: Hardware to play GTA IV on PC

If using Windows 7 try this https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_other-gaming/gta-iv-compatibility/26daa186...
If you still have problems Google 'memrestrict GTA IV'
-memrestrict 188743680 LOW TEXTURES (256M Video Cards)
-memrestrict 209715200
-memrestrict 230686720
-memrestrict 262144000 MED TEXTURES (512M Video Cards)
-memrestrict 293601280
-memrestrict 314572800
-memrestrict 629145600 HIGH TEXTURES (1Gig+ Video Cards)
-memrestrict 650117120
-memrestrict 681574400
I like the way people immediately scream "bad port" and give up before properly troubleshooting. You would all love ARMA.
twocvbloke
Seasoned Hero
Posts: 6,399
Thanks: 1,782
Fixes: 3
Registered: ‎06-11-2014

Re: Hardware to play GTA IV on PC

I only bought GTA4 last year, played it through, got bored of it (handling's too bouncybouncy, leapfrogging round corners in a Honda CRX ain't fun, even if the CRX is a fun car in game!!), GTA5 (PS3) came along, moved to that and was happy... Smiley
Still, I should try that Memrestric command, just to see if it works, but given that it won't fix the handling, it probably wouldn't be worth it for me personally... Smiley
myredhotcar
Grafter
Posts: 457
Registered: ‎06-11-2013

Re: Hardware to play GTA IV on PC

I'm playing Battlefield a lot right now and that has a load of weird issues too. I have ordered GTA V (PS4) and that will be here tomorrow so looking forward to that having never played it on any platform. It will be interesting to see how that ports bearing in mind the latest gen consoles are x86-64 PCs (no esoteric instruction sets this time around) to all intents and purposes. The only difference is clock speed and core count when compared to current, common gaming PC configurations. The PS4 also uses GDDR5 which is faster than DDR.
I doubt the memrestric will help the handling as you have pointed out but I would be interested to know if it improves performance.